the roku channel

If Roku’s third quarter earnings call could be distilled into a single phrase, it would be “early days.” (With “bullish” as a runner-up, perhaps.)

The average CTV platform now authorizes 30 SSPs to sell its inventory. And one of the most noticeable effects of increased SSP saturation in CTV has been higher costs due to SSP reselling.

In today’s newsletter: Why Apple’s SKAdNetwork 4.0 is a bust; advertisers are irked by Google’s optimization-driven demand for different creative formats; The Trade Desk releases a baffling list of top 100 publishers.

Roku is starting to bounce back from a slump in ad sales growth thanks to new ad inventory, more programmatic availability and improving economic conditions.

Programmers like free ad-supported TV channels because they’re an onramp to bring more viewers into ad-supported video-on-demand environments.

Roku’s total Q2 revenue was $764 million, up 18% year-over-year, but was relatively flat compared with last quarter, when revenue clocked in at $734 million. CFO Steve Louden was probably referring to that plateau when he warned of a TV ad spend hiatus. US advertisers are pulling back in reaction to inflation and supply chain shortages.

The Roku Channel was born in 2017 as a licensed third-party content hub to woo audiences toward streaming. Then, the channel began courting original content in 2021. The wider the content distribution, “the more engagement we can drive with our advertisers and the more we can monetize and invest in content,” said Katina Papas Wachter, head of ad sales and strategy at The Roku Channel.

Roku’s revenue for the fourth quarter was up 33% YOY, thanks to streaming and ad sales – but it’s losing money on its signature player devices. It’s also losing money licensing its operating system to manufacturers using it to create Roku TV models. Roku was the top streaming platform across the US, Canada and Mexico in terms of hours streamed – but investors still aren’t impressed.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Ya-Who’s There?  Yahoo (which is back, in case you haven’t heard) launched an ID-free targeting solution on Thursday. The company has a proprietary ID, which it calls the Yahoo ConnectID. But even today, 30% of ad impressions carry no advertising ID, Yahoo says […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Grabbing Share Watch out, Google and Facebook – Amazon is catching up. According to eMarketer, Amazon’s share of the digital ad market in the United States grew to 10.3% last year, up from 7.8% in 2019, The Wall Street Journal reports. It’s expected to make […]

“On TV And Video“ is a column exploring opportunities and challenges in advanced TV and video. Despite video streaming giant Roku’s record year, Scott Rosenberg, Roku’s SVP and GM of its platform business, told reporters ahead of Thursday’s earnings call, “we’re certainly going through a catch-up period” when it comes to ad spending keeping pace with the surge in streaming […]

Video streaming giant Roku experienced its strongest quarter ever as the COVID-19 pandemic fundamentally changed viewing behaviors in 2020 and fueled the shift to streaming. In its Q4 2020 earnings call Thursday, Roku’s YoY revenue soared 58% to $650 million, while its platform segment – which includes advertising and content distribution revenue – grew 81% […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Built On Sand? The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is launching an investigation into Google’s plan to phase out third-party cookies in Chrome, CNBC reports. The CMA says it’s received several complaints about how Google’s Privacy Sandbox proposals will impact competition. One of […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. New Year, Same Controversies Tell me if you’ve heard this one before: Political ads on Facebook contain misinformation. Well, it’s zero hour before the Jan. 5 Georgia runoff election for control of the Senate, and Republican ads on Facebook related to the race reportedly […]

“On TV & Video” is a column written by the sell side of the digital media community. After this exclusive first look for subscribers, the story by AdExchanger’s Allison Schiff will be published in full on AdExchanger.com. Jukin Media trawls the social universe for the most shareable video content from everyday people that it can […]

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. The Halves Not Apple is about to make a lot of smaller developers happy. Starting next year, Apple will lower its commission from 30% to 15% on sales for developers that generate less than $1 million in revenue through the App Store, including on […]

Video streaming giant Roku’s revenue soared 73% YOY to $452 million in Q3. Roku’s Platform business – which includes advertising and content distribution revenue – saw its strongest quarter in the segment’s history, with revenue leaping 78% YOY to $319 million. Roku attributed the record Platform numbers to strong growth in advertising as brands embraced […]

Popular YouTube channels for kids are migrating to the TV set through The Roku Channel and other ad-supported apps. Launched in 2017, The Roku Channel aggregates free content distributed on Roku’s platform along with live TV networks, premium video subscriptions and content packages geared toward different genres and age groups. When The Roku Channel launched […]